No problem. So basically it boils down to the generous unit loan concept that Stanford and a number of other schools have implemented, including Harvard, Yale...not sure about others.
The general formula is:
Student Budget (tuition + living expenses) - Student/Family Contribution = Financial Need
If Financial Need > Unit Loan, per year, then Student covers any extra cost thru need-based Stanford scholarships.
The unit loan at Stanford I believe is $6k per qtr, or 24k per year = ~$100k total loan debt after 4 years if you qualify. This is in-line with the average student loan debt (of students who actually need loans) of 98k after graduating.
Bottom line is, if your and your family's finances demonstrate that they FEASIBLY CANNOT afford to contribute, than the above eqn and subsequent f.aid package boils down to:
Student Budget (~70k year) = Financial Need
Financial Need (70k) - Unit Loan (24k) = $46k in scholarship covered by Stanford, per year
Now things get a little bit complicated if you do not meet the zero family contribution bracket. In this case, Stanford offers a very generous middle income assistance package where they match funds up to 15k per year I believe if your family contributes. For some reason, their mean family income that defines middle class is somewhere in the 120-180k range....so pretty generous. If you fall below this line, then your expected family contribution also = ZERO.
On top of all of this, they have pretty generous tuition reimbursement stipends for TA and research positions, which is something I would be interested in anyways. In total they can cover up to 15k in tuition, per year, if you put in the hours.
Don't quote me as I am not 100% sure on the exact numbers but hopefully this gives you a general overview of the financial aid at Stanford. Almost all of this can be found directly on their website:
http://med.stanford.edu/md/financial_aid/
In the end, just compare the average student loan debt upon graduation at Stanford (98k) vs. upward of 150k from my state school. Both numbers are only taking into account those that need loans in the first place, so aren't biased in anyway to the socioeconomic status of the students that end up matriculating to either school.